Massachusetts
Powerball, Mega Millions a ‘saving grace’ for Massachusetts Lottery
By Chris Lisinski, State Home Information Service
STATE HOUSE, BOSTON, DECEMBER 27, 2022 (State Home Information Service) – A file Powerball jackpot proved to be a windfall not only for the successful ticket-holder, however for the Massachusetts Lottery, too.
After months of sluggish gross sales, the newest fiscal year-to-date determine of $2.55 billion in Mass. Lottery merchandise offered is just about $11.6 million — or one half of 1 proportion level — behind the identical stretch throughout fiscal yr 2022, Lottery Interim Government Director Mark William Bracken stated throughout a Tuesday assembly of the Lottery Fee.
The hole between this yr’s gross sales and final yr’s has closed significantly up to now couple of months from greater than $60 million reported by means of the top of September, however that is perhaps an outlier fueled by the greater than $2 billion Powerball jackpot that attracted swaths of gamers.
In November 2022, the Massachusetts Lottery offered about $58.6 million in Powerball tickets, reflecting $48.9 million greater than November 2021, or a roughly sixfold improve.
The one different Lottery video games with significant gross sales will increase from November 2021 to November 2022 had been Mega Hundreds of thousands, which offered $4.3 million or 85 p.c extra, and Keno, which offered $1.3 million or 1.1 p.c extra.
Immediate tickets, which make up nearly all of all Lottery gross sales, have fared extra poorly. The Lotto offered $11.2 million much less in prompt tickets final month than in November 2021, a 3 p.c drop. For the reason that begin of fiscal yr 2023, the Lotto has offered near $1.63 billion price of prompt tickets, which is $87.6 million or 5.1 p.c behind the tempo set throughout the identical interval final yr.
Bracken referred to as Powerball and Mega Hundreds of thousands the Lottery’s “saving grace” amid slowdowns in different gross sales.
Officers are hopeful, in the meantime, {that a} brand-new, record-breaking sport will assist drive new curiosity. The Lottery will launch its first-ever $50 scratch ticket, titled “Billion Greenback Extravaganza,” on Feb. 7.
Altogether, the sport will provide greater than $1 billion in complete winnings, headlined by three $25 million prime prizes which can be the most important the Massachusetts Lottery has ever included on an prompt ticket. The sport can even characteristic 5 $2 million prizes and 15 prizes price $1 million.
“This would be the greatest probability to win $500 and $1,000 within the historical past of the Massachusetts Lottery,” Bracken stated.
Officers say the $50 ticket’s 82 p.c prize payout is the very best proportion of any sport the state lottery has ever provided, and the minimal prize shall be $100, which means each winner will do higher than breaking even on a single ticket.
The priciest prompt ticket the Lottery sells now prices gamers $30.
Bracken stated officers are “very, very excited to be becoming a member of the 14 or 15 or so different states that have already got a $50 value level out available in the market.”
“It is one thing that our gamers and our brokers inform us time and time once more, nearly in each single focus group, ‘Why have you ever not launched the $50 ticket?’ We by no means thought it was the fitting time,” he stated.
Mass. Lottery Chief Advertising Officer Edward Farley stated the company “actually turned this ticket the other way up” workshopping it earlier than its launch.
“Because the Lottery’s fiftieth anniversary celebration approaches the top, what higher time to introduce the $50 ticket to start our subsequent 50 years!” added Treasurer Deborah Goldberg in an announcement. “Our clients had been requesting this ticket for a while. After cautious consideration, the Lottery has what we imagine will present them with the completely new degree of pleasure they’ve been in search of.”
The fee initiatives that the Lottery will promote greater than $1.5 billion in “Billion Greenback Extravaganza” video games, which might generate greater than $150 million in web revenue, which will get returned to all 351 cities and cities as unrestricted native help.
December featured one other Lottery milestone, too. Through the first week of the month, it surpassed $50 million in claims cashed by means of the Massachusetts Lottery cellular app, which launched in September 2021.
Massachusetts
Massachusetts military secrets leaker Jack Teixeira sentenced to 15 years in prison
The Massachusetts Air National Guard tech support member responsible for “one of the most significant leaks of classified documents and information in United States history” will spend a decade and a half behind bars.
U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani sentenced Jack Teixeira to 180 months, which is 15 years, in federal prison at a sentencing hearing in federal court in Boston’s Seaport on Tuesday afternoon. She also ordered, among other conditions, that he enter a mental health treatment program and barred him from taking any jobs where he would have access to sensitive government materials. She did not impose a fine because he did not have the resources to pay a fine.
“I wanted to say I’m sorry for all the harm I’ve wrought and I’ve caused,” Teixeira, wearing an orange Plymouth County Correctional Facility jumpsuit, said before Talwani delivered her sentence.
“I can’t really sum up how contrite I am that my behavior has caused such a maelstrom,” the 22-year-old continued, “affecting my family and everyone overseas. I understand that all of the responsibility and consequences come on my shoulders alone and I accept whatever that will bring. I’m at your mercy, your honor.”
Teixeira, of Dighton, was arrested in April 2023 and pleaded guilty in March to six counts of willful retention and transmission of national defense information under the Espionage Act.
Teixeira, who served as a Cyber Defense Operations Journeyman at Otis Air National Guard Base on Cape Cod, leaked more than 40 highly classified military documents, including many regarding Russia’s war in Ukraine, to a cadre of fellow video game players on the social media platform Discord.
He was looking at a maximum of more than 16 years for his crimes, if Talwani had followed the plea agreement, which she wasn’t bound by in calculating sentencing. Teixeira entered the plea agreement in late February and finalized with his guilty pleas days later on March 4.
Boston FBI Special Agent in Charge Jodi Cohen called Teixeira “a textbook example of an insider threat.”
“His actions compromised military plans, sources and methods, and allowed our most significant adversaries access to some of our most closely guarded intelligence,” she continued in a press conference following sentencing.
Acting U.S. Attorney Joshua Levy at the same press conference said that the “heavy price” of the sentence “sends a powerful message to every individual who holds a top secret clearance.”
“I expect that starting tomorrow, Jack Teixeira’s name will be mentioned when people are trained about the gravity of a top secret clearance and the consequences if you leak information,” Levy said.
Sentencing arguments
The federal prosecutor, Jared Dolan, in arguing for a sentence of 200 months, called Teixeira’s crimes “exceptionally serious” and compared his actions to those of Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning. He said that the sentence should be large enough to be a huge deterrent to anyone else who is considering such disclosures.
“Our military is built on a backbone of people his age and younger,” Dolan said. “And we trust that the training for those individuals put them in a place to succeed and that’s what they do every single day.”
“The defendants job was to not tell anyone else, what he promised to not tell anyone else,” he continued. “Youthful brains make impulsive decisions, but this was not an impulsive decision and if it was then it was an impulsive decision that he made every day for more than a year.”
Talwani spoke at length about her thought process on sentencing a crime for which there was “very little case law.”
“It seems to me that this is not one harm, this is multiple harms,” Talwani said when arguing that she disagreed with the plea agreement’s argument that the crimes could be grouped. She compared it to rape or robbery, to where even if the victim remained the same each new offense was a different crime.
“Yes the victim is the same here, the victim is the United States,” she continued. “But I don’t know how you can say it’s the same if he did it for one month instead of 13 months. … Each time you are creating a new risk, each time is new information, new disclosure.”
In sentencing memos filed last month, the defense recommended a sentence of 11 years whereas the prosecution recommended a sentence of 16 years and eight months, citing not only the need for Teixeira’s adequate punishment but to deter anyone else from even considering similar actions.
Defense attorney Michael Bachrach argued that Teixeira had no intention whatsoever to harm the United States, and that “motive matters.”
Unlike Manning and Snowden, who each chose to disclose secrets with purpose, Bachrach argued that Teixeira’s “truly bad decision making” was built on both his youth and his autism and wanting to find a community.
“What he cared about was having a community to speak to because he didn’t have that community at Otis Air Base,” Bachrach said, adding that his recommended sentence of 11 years is “significant” and is more time than half of the defendant’s life at the time of the crimes.
Talwani took some exception with Bachrach’s argument but did agree that she was leaning toward a downward departure based on Teixeira’s age.
Originally Published:
Massachusetts
Winning $50,000 Powerball ticket sold in Massachusetts
A lottery player won $50,000 playing Powerball in Massachusetts on Monday.
The winning numbers for the Powerball drawing on Nov. 11 were 3, 21, 24, 34, 46 and Powerball: 9. The multiplier was a 3X.
The $50,000 ticket sold in Massachusetts matched four of the first five numbers, and the Powerball number. It was sold in Waltham at a 7-Eleven.
Overall, at least 200 prizes worth $600 or more were won or claimed in Massachusetts on Monday, including eight in Springfield, seven in Worcester and 20 in Boston.
The Massachusetts State Lottery releases a full list of winning tickets every day. The list only includes winning tickets worth more than $600.
So far, the largest lottery prize won in Massachusetts this year was worth $1 million a year for life.
The prize was from the lottery’s “Lifetime Millions” scratch ticket game. The winner claimed their prize through a trust on July 10, and opted to receive a one-time payment of $15.4 million.
Massachusetts
Schools closed in 3 Massachusetts communities Tuesday as teacher strike continues
GLOUCESTER – Still at a deadlock, 10,000 students in three North Shore communities have classes canceled on Tuesday, as the teacher strike continues in Gloucester, Beverly, and Marblehead.
The three unions spoke together Monday night, accusing their school committees of digging in their heels at the bargaining table while school leaders accused the unions of colluding to drag negotiations.
All three teacher union contracts expired on August 31st, 2024.
“It is not a coincidence, it’s a message that these issues are felt widely and deeply across the North Shore,” said Andrea Sherman, co-president of the Beverly Teachers Association.
“It is the school committee and their attorneys for all three districts that are colluding together to draw this out,” said Jonathan Heller president of the Marblehead Education Association.
In Gloucester, right now, school leaders say the town and teachers are $800,000 a year apart on salaries alone, plus school officials said under the union’s proposal 24 teachers would be laid off over three years.
“We are committed to mediating long into the night, but our teachers should be in the school during the day with their students,” said School Committee President Kathy Clancy. “That is unacceptable and most definitely not in the best interest of our students.”
“To meet their proposal would mean either a tax override resulting in a permanent increase to taxes or cuts to services to our taxpayers and residents,” said Gloucester Mayor Greg Verga.
Striking teachers rally together
Monday afternoon, teachers on the picket line from each district rallied with their biggest goals in mind: better wages for underpaid paraprofessionals and safer schools.
“It feels amazing because we have seen so much community support and this is just really empowering us to continue to do right by our students,” said Beverly Teacher Lauren Lauranzano.
Since teacher strikes are illegal in Massachusetts, a judge had ordered the Gloucester and Beverly teachers to be back in the classroom on Tuesday, but now they’ll be headed to court.
Marblehead will start it’s strike which was announced on Friday after failed negotiations.
The president of the state teacher’s union is in solidarity with the teacher unions, saying these are issues educators face statewide.
“Our members are saying get to the bargaining table, let’s stay all night, lets resolve these issues. These are not new issues, all of these locals have been bargaining for months and months,” said Max Page, president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association.
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